1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a jet-propulsion watercraft such as a personal watercraft (PWC) which ejects water rearward and hydroplanes as the resulting reaction. More particularly, the present invention relates to a water drawing structure in a water jet pump, to supply water taken from an inside of the water jet pump for propulsion to an engine or the like as cooling water.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, so-called jet-propulsion personal watercraft (hereinafter, also referred to as a personal watercraft) have been widely used in leisure, sport, rescue activities, and the like. The jet-propulsion watercraft is configured to have a water jet pump that pressurizes and accelerates water sucked from a water intake generally provided on a bottom surface of a hull and ejects it rearward from an outlet port. Thereby, the watercraft is propelled.
In the jet-propulsion watercraft, a steering nozzle provided behind the outlet port of the water jet pump is swung either to the right or to the left by operating a bar-type or a round-type steering handle to the right or to the left, to change the ejection direction of the water to the right or to the left, thereby turning the watercraft to the right or to the left.
In the jet-propulsion watercraft, to cool components requiring cooling, such as an engine and an exhaust system, water is typically taken from a positive-pressure region inside the water jet pump and is directly or indirectly led to the components to cool them.
The water flowing through the inside of the water jet pump often contains unwanted substances such as sand, stones and water borne plants. It is therefore necessary to remove these substances from the water when taken from the inside of the water jet pump. To this end, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-119883 discloses that a porous filter is provided in an opening in a portion of the water jet pump from where the water is taken.
When cleaning the filter provided in the opening, a cover member provided over the filter needs to be removed. Since the cover member is located inside and apart from an opening of a pump room containing the water jet pump, cleaning of the filter is troublesome.